Metallica Makes Stadium History in Berlin
The Olympiastadion in Berlin was the setting on Saturday evening for a night that will be written into the record books. Metallica broke the German record for the best-attended stadium concert, a title that had been held by U2 since 2009. The milestone was celebrated with fireworks above the packed arena, as fans who had travelled from across Europe bore witness to a show that was as much a piece of history as it was a concert.
The evening opened the way it always does on the M72 World Tour: with AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)” blaring over the PA, followed by the swelling trumpets of Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold”. As the soprano melody climbed to its peak, James Hetfield stepped onto the ring-shaped stage — no lights, no fog, just the man and his guitar. Then came the thunderous opening riff of “Creeping Death”, a track from 1984’s “Ride the Lightning”, and the night was truly under way.
Earlier in the evening, support came from French metal heavyweights Gojira and Kentucky hardcore bruisers Knocked Loose, both of whom warmed up a crowd already primed for something out of the ordinary. Berlin was a one-night-only stop on the tour rather than part of the band’s now-customary No Repeat Weekend format, which meant Metallica could draw freely from across their entire catalogue without having to hold anything back for a second night.
The 360-degree stage production is the centrepiece of the M72 operation. Metallica performed from the heart of the stadium, surrounded by the audience, with enormous truss towers bearing cylindrical video screens and speaker stacks ringing the field. The setup only fully revealed its scale as darkness settled over Berlin: pyrotechnics shot into the summer sky, lights blazed and strobed, and the whole spectacle took on a near-cinematic quality. Given the sheer size of the production, the sound held up impressively, reaching even those furthest from the stage.
The setlist offered a journey through four decades of the band’s work. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” rolled in like a thunderclap, followed by “Of Wolf and Man” and the title track from 2023’s “72 Seasons”. The 1991 self-titled album, known universally as the Black Album, exerted a commanding presence throughout the evening: “Sad but True”, “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” all featured, the latter drawing a moment of near-silence as tens of thousands sang along into the warm Berlin night. “The Memory Remains” and the churning “Fuel” kept the energy high in the middle of the set, while “The Day That Never Comes” and “Wherever I May Roam” showed the band’s ability to shift emotional gears without ever losing the room.
Midway through the show, Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett broke away for their now-traditional Doodle — a short interlude in which the two play a local song in tribute to the city they are in. In Berlin, the choice fell on “Sonne” by Rammstein. Trujillo took on the German-language vocals himself, to thunderous approval from the crowd. It was a generous, well-judged gesture that drew the most raucous singalong of the entire evening.
The final stretch left nothing on the table. “One” built from its quiet, searching opening into its familiar furious climax, followed by the relentless double punch of “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman”. “Seek & Destroy” handed the crowd the reins, the audience roaring back every call, as the fireworks marking the attendance record lit up the sky above the historic stadium.
The M72 World Tour continues through the summer, with shows still to come in Bologna, Budapest, Dublin, Glasgow and London. Berlin proved on Saturday night that, more than forty years into their career, Metallica remain one of the very few acts capable of filling and detonating a stadium on this scale.
